Agenda item

The Board heard a verbal presentation from The Pensions Regulator that provided Members with an overview of the expectations and responsibilities of Local Government Pension Scheme administrators and the Local Government Pensions Board.

The Pensions Regulator advised Members on key areas of focus for Pensions Board Members, particularly, legal requirements, policies to be conversant with, governance requirements, data management, record keeping, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and also mitigation against cyber threats.

The Pension Regulator referred to record keeping, legacy data and the need to adhere to GDPR requirements that data only be stored for as long as it was needed. 

The Pension Manager explained that, at the time of drafting privacy notices, a timeline of 15 years had been agreed for retaining records post death as this was the maximum time after death that a challenge could be made.  It was confirmed that a skeletal record would be retained when any scheme member asks to be forgotten; sufficient data would then be retained allowing individuals to be identified and showing evidence of their request to transfer out of the scheme.

The Chairman stressed the importance of an agreed policy in relation to retention of records and requests to be forgotten and asked that the policy be reviewed and brought back to the Board for formal agreement.

The Deputy Chairman commented on the importance of reviewing records and the obligation in law in this regard and suggested there would be certain circumstances where records would need retaining for longer than 15 years.  The Deputy Chairman further highlighted that requests to be forgotten would not be an absolute right; it was a right to request and making information difficult to access would meet the public requirement.

It was agreed that a report will be brought back to the Board setting out a draft retention policy for agreement.

RESOLVED – That the Pensions Regulator be Heard.  That a draft policy on retention of records be brought to the next meeting of the Board.